


Tale as Old as Time

by windfallswest



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Alternate Universe, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-29 03:19:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windfallswest/pseuds/windfallswest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"And besides, we're a Buddhist temple. You're the closet thing to a beautiful maiden we've got."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> How Sanzo and Goku might have met, if Saiyuki were more like Beauty and the Beast (you decide which is which). No spoilers per se, but parts might make more sense if you've read Saiyuki Ibun.
> 
> All hail my magnificent beta, [htebazytook](http://archiveofourown.org/users/htebazytook).

" _What do you mean_ you promised me to the beast?" Kouryuu advanced on the old man with murder in mind.

Koumyou sucked unconcernedly on his pipe, not even bothering to look at his pupil. Kouryuu thought his brain might _actually explode_ from sheer force of rage.

"You can consider it a part of your training, if you like," Koumyou added after a few minutes' contemplation.

"I'm supposed to spend the _rest of my life_ in the middle of a forest, on top a mountain—how did you even _find_ this place? _What_ is it on the way to, you worthless old fart?—with a shaggy, slobbering beast with the manners of a herd of _swine_ —"

"He wouldn't be the only one," Koumyou muttered dryly.

"—and _you_ have the gall to tell me it's part of my _training_?"

Kouryuu stood glaring at his master, shoulders heaving.

Koumyou took another drag from his pipe and answered philosophically, "Well, I'm your master, so technically anything I say is part of your training, is."

"There's an easy answer to that," Kouryuu said grimly, drawing and cocking his Smith and Wesson in one smooth motion. It was aimed squarely at Koumyou's chakra mark.

Koumyou looked up at him. His brief sideways glance said, _be serious_. "What? You'd rather I'd been eaten by a bear that night?"

"You really want me to answer that?" Kouryuu drawled dangerously.

Koumyou let out an unperturbed lungful of smoke.

"Well, it's not like _I_ was going to stay there. And besides, we're a Buddhist temple. You're the closet thing to a beautiful maiden we've got."

Kouryuu felt his eye twitching. He'd been wrong. _Now_ his head was going to explode. Brains all over the porch.

"It's that mountain, over there. To the west." Koumyou gestured with his pipe.

Kouryuu's arm shot straight out and he fired into the woods. All the eavesdroppers ducked. He thought he heard a cat yowl. _The fuck's a cat doing out here?_

Fucking. West.

"Anyway, it was a long time ago. You can't really do anything about it now," Koumyou continued conversationally.

Kouryuu growled and headed for the larder. He'd need supplies.

"Oh—and Kouryuu—happy birthday."

By this point, Kouryuu was no longer capable of coherent speech, so he merely turned to glare harpoons at his complacent master before stalking away again.

 

Eighteen. He was eighteen years old, and what did he get? bartered off to some shaggy ape-brain because Koumyou Sanzo was a grade-A kook. Kouryuu glared at the trees and the dusty path and the sunlight.

Kouryuu couldn't even enjoy the peace and quiet away from nattering idiots—shouldn't monks be _less_ annoying than normal people?—because of the voice. The voice had been there for almost half his life. _West_ , it whined. _Come west. Come to me. Come find me._ Kouryuu didn't know if it was the forest or the voice's increasingly insistent pull, but he found himself walking unerringly in the direction of Mount Gogyo, even though the looming, ancient trees for the most part blocked everything else from sight.

It was not a happy day that saw Kouryuu reach the beast's castle. He had been walking for most of a fortnight, which meant he'd spent the last week and more not being able to sleep for the inevitability of a tree root digging into his back. The higher he went, the cooler it was, and sometimes it seemed that as he rose above the lowland noise, the call echoed louder in his mind.

That last morning it was raining. Kouryuu almost took a perverse pleasure in it: let him look like a drowned rat when he got there. Hell if he was going to make any sort of effort for this perverted jerk. Serve him right if Kouryuu caught pneumonia and died after a week.

Thunder boomed overhead just as Kouryuu was about to knock on the ostentatiously gothic and oppressive gate. He looked up at it. He looked up at the dark, grumbling clouds. The castle wasn't quite above the treeline, and so while the lowering thunderheads shrouded the tops of the highest towers from sight, the heavy, moist east winds still dropped the rains that fed the forest on its grey stones before driving lighter clouds up over the peaks to vanish across the western plains.

"Are you going to stand there all day or what?"

Kouryuu jumped at the sound of the gruff voice. He searched the direction it had come from and saw—the knocker. There was a face on it. It wasn't pretty. He looked around again.

"Well?" the voice grated impatiently, if gravel could sound impatient.

Kouryuu's arm snapped out with his gun, trained point-blank on the knocker. There still wasn't anything else there, but Kouryuu hadn't just fallen off the turnip truck.

"Is that how they say 'please' where you're from, kid?" the knocker asked. "See if I open for you now."

Enchanted castle: strike three. (In case anyone's wondering, strikes one and two were the initial bargain and the telepathic nagging.)

"Your enlightened Lord Fuzzy-Wuzzy is expecting me," Kouryuu said without lowering his gun.

Kouryuu could have sworn the knocker rolled its eyes (all five of them).

"I'm a door, for fuck's sake. D'you think I can actually do anything to you?"

 _You can close,_ Kouryuu thought sourly.

"Do I _look_ like an idiot?" Kouryuu muttered aloud. "But if you insist..."

He put his gun up and reached for the knocker. He raised the bar and rapped it down hard on the cranky face's nose. It was, he noticed, a very squidgy-looking nose.

The knocker glared resentfully at Kouryuu. Then it straightened its features and cleared its nonexistent throat. A single hollow boom echoed Kouryuu's knock from somewhere deep within the castle.

"Who seeks entrance to Castle Gogyo?" the knocker declaimed stertorously.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." Kouryuu stared at it disbelievingly.

"Answer or be denied entry!"

"Fuck _that_." Kouryuu turned on his heel and started walking back down the path.

He was about two-thirds of the way across the narrow clearing around the castle walls when a sizzling huge ball of lightning fried the gargantuan, gnarled oak standing on one side of the path. Half of the thing peeled conveniently down, blocking his way.

"You've got to be _shitting_ me!" Kouryuu hurled the protest skywards. An unaccompanied rumble of thunder and a tingling feeling that made small hairs all over his body stand on end seemed very much like an answer. Kouryuu spun around again with ill grace and stalked angrily back to the gate.

"Who are you who would to enter Castle Gogyo?" The knocker looked _way_ too smug. Kouryuu grit his teeth.

"I am Kouryuu of the river's flow, student of Koumyou Sanzo."

The gates swung ponderously open. Kouryuu marched grimly past them.

"Uptight prick," Kouryuu thought he heard the knocker grumble behind him.

Kouryuu maybe smirked a little. He sobered quickly, though. The walk to the keep doors was a long one, over slick cobblestones and past interestingly well-shaped grounds. The rain fell in sheets, driven in swirls by the wind that slipped in and got trapped by the walls.

There were eight high steps, wide enough for four men to walk abreast, leading to the door. It was carved, unrelenting stone. Double doors. It was impossible to make out the figures carved into it, but at least none of them moved. The wind tugged at the hem of Kouryuu's robes. Kouryuu stood there, and the stone scraped open for him, over the wide top step. The edges brushed his shoulders. Inside was dark. He stepped forward.

_Get this the hell over with._

The entrance hall was cavernous. The only light filtered in slate-blue through the windows, large ones in rooms opening off to either side and others on the wall behind the grand staircase, blurred by water and muffled into oblivion by cloud and darkness.

"I will be _so_ pissed if no one is here," Kouryuu grumbled to himself.

The door shut itself behind him with a consciously ominous sound. Kouryuu searched the shadows uselessly. Where would this—whoever he was _go_ during a storm? Up to a tower to menace the thunder?

He felt like an idiot standing there like some helpless bimbo, so he wandered up the ridiculous stairs— _higher ground_ —and over to the windows. They were bracketed by long velvet drapes whose colour the lightning rendered merely _dark_. Kouryuu poked one experimentally with the muzzle of his gun. Satisfied with its inanimacy, he settled with his back mostly to it and stared resignedly out the window.

When it came down to it, Kouryuu was much more concerned about the possibility of the drapes waking up and swallowing him than he was about his host jumping out of the shadows and ripping his throat out. He certainly wouldn't be standing with his face in the light if he were.

No, Koumyou honestly wouldn't have sent him here if he'd expected that. Why hadn't he just used the sutras to blow the scum to nirvana, for that matter? The man simply refused to explain himself, which was more or less necessary because _nothing he did made sense_.

This just got stupider and stupider the more Kouryuu thought about it. What was he supposed to be _doing_ here?

The thick stone walls muted the storm's noise, leaving Kouryuu alone in eerie silence. Or—maybe not quite so alone. A piece of the shadows clinging to the mezzanine railing detached itself.

Kouryuu ignored it. He'd come this far. The beast could bloody well find _him_. He wasn't about to go calling after it with quivering voice and heart aflutter.

The movement was closer this time. Kouryuu _was not_ holding his fucking breath. There had been gashes on the banister. They'd caught in the windows' feeble gleam; and Kouryuu hated that his master smoked, but he could _really_ use a drag right now. Or six, which was about as much pipe-smoke he could take. Cigarettes went down smoother, when he succumbed to the urge to poison himself.

A flash of lightning brightened the world fractionally for a split second. Kouryuu clearly heard a gasp not covered by distanced thunder.

"Are you going to stand there gawking or what?" Kouryuu asked, not moving.

That won him a growl that raised every hair he owned. There was an almost inaudible, cat-footed step and then Kouryuu got his first look at the beast.

He wasn't human: that much was obvious. Everything about him was sharp: his ears, his teeth, his fingers, his _hair_. His eyes, even, deep gold and slashed down the middle with darkness.

 _Youkai._ Definitely. Or, something. That _look_ in his eyes barely admitted to thought.

 _So, what? Has he lost it?_ Chant up a binding? Try to find his mind?

No. _Koumyou wouldn't have left him like this so long..._ Something didn't feel right.

The beast tilted his head, and something under all that spiky hair caught the light. Kouryuu reached out before he _thought_ —and he _froze_ with his hand on the beast's head. Oh, shit on a motherfucker's dick. He was going to die, right now. Kouryuu braced himself.

The beast looked...baffled? Maybe he was wondering which limb to rip off first. Still not moving. _Dammit. Forget everything the fucking monks said._ This guy didn't look any older than Kouryuu himself.

 _Stop being such a baby,_ he told himself sternly. Breathing in just a little bit, he sifted his fingers through the think, unruly hair, searching for—aha! Kouryuu parted the heavy pelt so he could see better, peering intently.

It was a thin, thin circlet made out of some kind of metal, probably gold. _Power limiter?_ Kouryuu's eyes narrowed. A sutra could do something like that. _Curiouser and curiouser._

A long-fingered hand reached out. Kouryuu stilled, but the claws only brushed his hair gently, so gently. Kouryuu felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Anyone home in there?" he asked. Fuck, this was surreal.

The hand dropped away, but its owner took a step forward, raking Kouryuu's fingers through his knotty hair again and _why were they still there_ , anyway? He pulled them back hastily and took a small step in retreat. Prudently. The beast advanced another pace and—

—fell on his ass.

Kouryuu looked down and noticed for the first time that he was dripping all over the stone floor. He couldn't help it. He started laughing. _Snickering_ , Koumyou would have said, exactly the one that always landed him with the most unpleasant chores; but oh, was it worth it.

Hopefully the beast had a sense of humour.

"Morons. I can't keep calling you that." Unless he chewed with his mouth open. "What's your name?" Kouryuu asked, holding out his hand.

Gold looked up at him wordlessly, with what almost had to be a light of its own, but his hand, at least, was accepted. And then nearly torn from its socket. Damn youkai strength.

"You should wear shoes, idiot," Kouryuu told him. Then he realised they were inside. "Sandals. Whatever. Maybe I should just put on some dry clothes."

Kouryuu's mouth twisted wryly. If his current attire was any indication, his...host's wardrobe didn't include many shirts, and no way were any jeans going to fit. He was a little on the short side and even narrower in the hips than Kouryuu.

They kind of stared at each other for a while, while Kouryuu mentally kicked himself for being a slack-jawed half-wit; and then, with a look of great thoughtfulness, the beast walked past him. Kouryuu watched him go with a sense of relief. He was getting a little chilly; maybe of he looked around he could find—

The beast stopped and glanced back over his shoulder impatiently—Kouryuu's facial muscles twitched in sympathy—and Kouryuu took the hint. Follow. Right. Why the hell not?

There was no light in the hall they walked down. Apparently, the beast didn't need any. Kouryuu trailed his fingers along the wall and hoped for no sudden stops.

It wasn't a long walk; the door the beast led him to was only a short ways along the hallway. The room behind it had a window, about as helpful as the others. Another awkward, speaking silence.

"It's fine. Uh, thanks," Kouryuu said dismissively. Incongruously, he tried to smile.

The beast bared his fangs uneasily in reply and flowed out. Kouryuu stared at the fingers of the hand that had gripped the beast's. The look on his face was contemplative.

Miraculously, there were clothes in the room's armoire. Miraculously indeed. This must have been the room Koumyou had stayed in; there was a set of his spare robes hanging there. No. Just—no. But _he_ was apparently the only thing in the entire castle producing heat, and he needed to change into _something_ if he didn't really want to catch pneumonia and die.

Fuck that. He was getting out of this alive so he could punch Koumyou in the nose when he got back. So he rubbed himself dry with an extra blanket and pulled on the black underlayer. He drew the line at the full-on robes. The jeans were okay, although he had to use the sash to hold them up. The leather of the shirt and sleeves was still soft and supple.

"Magic furniture. Right."

"You bet your sweet ass," a voice said out of the armoire, though Kouryuu didn't see a face.

"Tell me the bed at least doesn't talk," Kouryuu said resignedly. He was getting a headache.

The armoire chuckled. "He doesn't say anything, but he _watches_. Kidding! Kidding! Sheesh, pretty-boy."

"I _will_ shoot you." Kouryuu glared just in case it could see.

Kouryuu went out into the hall barefoot. The stone was glacial under his feet, but there had been no sandals and his boots were unpleasantly soaked and muddy. An apparently self-propelled mop scrubbing at his trail paused to bob at him reproachfully. Bemused, Kouryuu left the door ajar for it. Hopefully, it'd leave it that way and he could at least locate it by touch (by crashing into it) later.

Wandering around this mausoleum barefoot made Kouryuu feel small. He almost went back to his room and put his boots back on, squishing be damned.

Jaw clenched, Kouryuu pressed on. The storm was still lashing at the windows at the head of the stairs. After a moment's contemplation, Kouryuu turned away. Important rooms like the kitchen and the library were almost sure to be on the ground floor. Kouryuu hoped there was a kitchen; trail rations got old fast. The beast had to eat _something_ , didn't he? And if the library had escaped shredding, it might provide a clue as to what the fuck was going on here.

Downstairs was black as sin. He'd found nothing useful in the front rooms, mostly wreckage and empty fireplaces. Beyond them lay a maze of intersecting corridors. Kouryuu walked with his hand on the wall slightly advanced so he wouldn't—

"Egg-sucking whoreson!"

—run into anything. Kouryuu rubbed his nose sourly.

"Ah—excuse me. Might I be of service?" another damned voice asked from somewhere to his right.

"I don't know," Kouryuu said acerbically, "Can you glow in the dark?"

Kouryuu turned, purely out of habit, towards the voice's source. At least it had some manners, Kouryuu thought, hand resting on his gun.

"Nothing simpler."

And abruptly there was light. Kouryuu blinked dazedly.

"I can in fact emit light irregardless of the ambient luminosity."

It was coming from a paper lamp sitting in an alcove in the wall.

"I don't suppose you know the way to the kitchen, too." Kouryuu ventured warily. His stomach was getting to be a distraction.

"But of course. If you would just..."

Kouryuu picked the lamp up by the handle.

"Ah. I'm afraid we're in the wrong wing. Turn left here..."

"Cheery place." Kouryuu looked around at the bare walls and thick, iron-bound doors. "You must not get many visitors."

"Only one that I recall. I believe it was raining then as well. Once might almost wish for it to rain more often." The lamp sighed.

All right then.

They crossed the entrance hall once again, passing behind the grand staircase this time. Kouryuu could see him clearly now as he leapt from one railing clear across to the other. He sailed overhead with a sinewy grace and landed in a sort of perpendicular crouch, hanging on to the banister with one hand and braced with both bare feet.

The beast's sharp eyes fixed clearly on Kouryuu before he launched again and, with a trajectory like a hairy ping-pong ball, bounced off the staircase to land gracefully on the floor. Kouryuu forced himself to remain calm.

"I'm getting dinner," Kouryuu said directly into those mad gold eyes.

Bracing himself, he took a step forward. The beast moved to block him, but no more. Kouryuu tried to step around him, with the same result. His eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing, you stupid monkey?" he snapped. The crazed fixation in his eyes when he looked at Kouryuu was creepy.

There was a flash of something else there when Kouryuu spoke. He looked away, noticing instead the lustre the monkey's skin took on in even this little bit of light. _He'd be blinding in the sun_.

Kouryuu brushed past him. _Stupid monkey is right._ It was his fault Kouryuu was here in the first place.

"What now?" Kouryuu asked his guide. "C'mon."

Kouryuu shook the lamp; he had the distinct impression it was glancing behind them at monkey-boy, who was skulking along in the most hyperactive imitation of stealth Kouryuu had ever witnessed.

"Oh. Ah. Turn right, then," The lamp directed.

 

Kouryuu looked around the pristine, if still rather gothic, kitchen. Some rough wooden cupboards turned out to conceal (Kouryuu was surprised at the vanity) a refrigerator, a microwave, and various other civilised conveniences. He opened the refrigerator, not expecting much. Certainly not expecting what looked like enough food to feed an army. Sushi, dumplings, noodles, rice—damn, he wasn't even going to have to cook anything.

While Kouryuu was sticking things in the microwave, monkey-brain stared at the refrigerator as though it had committed a personal betrayal. Yanking it open, he gazed avidly at the practically dripping slabs of meat the wood-covered door revealed.

Kouryuu pushed it shut and looked again, curious. Ah—rice. Just what he'd been looking for.

The monkey slammed it viciously and dragged out what seemed to be an entire side of beef.

Kouryuu stabbed emphatically at the microwave.

"Stupid monkey. What're you going to do with that?"

Sharp teeth ripped off a defiant chunk. Kouryuu sighed.

"At least I have something to call you."

 

The monkey alternated between trailing Kouryuu in an obsessively energetic fashion and disappearing completely. It was a peculiarly disorienting effect.

The utter lack of restraint made Kouryuu's brain hurt. He had watched the entire slab of raw meat disappear in less time than it took him to brew coffee, and the day after the storm let up, the monkey had reappeared bouncing and covered with mud. The mops, Kouryuu noticed, did not chide _him_.

Kouryuu spent his time exploring the vast, draughty pile of castle. The lamp was helpful more as light than as a guide. The only other person to have made use of it, Kouryuu suspected, had been his master; and he had evidently spent most of his time between his room, the kitchen, and a certain room in one of the towers.

Whatever was in there, the monkey didn't like it: whenever Kouryuu took them too close, he started growling and literally bouncing off the walls. The first time, Kouryuu reached for the door and woke up twenty yards down the corridor with a lump the size of fat Buddha on his head.

Today, Kouryuu was in the library. Barring the mysterious tower, which he couldn't seem to get near alone, it seemed like the most likely place to find something useful. It was large, and some of the bookcases were slightly toppled. A pre-verbal ape certainly hadn't collected all this. Not for the first time, Kouryuu wondered who had built this place.

Kouryuu was up early, which was a good way to shake his erstwhile stalker. Kouryuu didn't know where the monkey slept, but he evidently slept like a log. It was all but impossible to concentrate with him jittering around, and the library didn't need any more disrupting. Kouryuu's efforts to appear boring by plodding methodically around the fortress had been woefully unsuccessful. All Kouryuu was hoping for now was that one of the scrolls would reveal what the monkey was, and who had shut him in here and why, and what he, Kouryuu, was supposed to do about it.

It was about midmorning and Kouryuu was trudging through yet another thick text in rather antiquated and artistically calligraphed Chinese when the monkey bounded into the room and, with all the delicacy of a rip-tide, dragged Kouryuu out of the library and all the way to the outer grounds.

"Let me _go_ , you stupid chimp! What the fuck—I'm—going—to—shoot—your—ass!"

Whacking the monkey repeatedly over the head with his paper fan was like whipping a boulder with a wet noodle. The casual strength was terrifying, if Kouryuu were allowiing himself to be terrified.

Once outside, the monkey dropped him on his ass and went cartwheeling across the lawn. The sun was almost blinding; Kouryuu realised he hadn't been outside in days.

The monkey tumbled back over to Kouryuu while he was still rubbing his bruised ass. Kouryuu glared at him.

"I have two words for you, monkey: impulse control."

The monkey _wriggled_ closer, grinning madly. That should have been warning enough, but Kouryuu was still surprised when one clawed hand came to touch his hair. A look of intense concentration took over the glowing brown face.

"Goku." The voice was rough with disuse.

"What did you say?"

Sharp nails scraped lightly over his scalp.

"Goku," the monkey repeated.

"Goku," Kouryuu said.

The monkey smiled brilliantly and promptly leapt forty feet in the air and started harassing the defenceless trees.

Kouryuu buried his face in his hands.

"Aagh, stupid monkey."


	2. Chapter 2

"What the hell _is_ up with this place?" Kouryuu groaned to his closed eyelids. He was met with only an echoing, watery silence. The baths were more like pools, deep and wide. Goku the hyperactive super-chimp made an unholy tempest of them, although it did keep him from smelling _too_ much like a dead frog all the time.

It was late now, though. Kouryuu was floating towards the hot end, trying to boil his thoughts into a new order.

"That was a question." Kouryuu opened his eyes to scowl at the lamp.

"I'm sure I don't know anything useful; most of what I remember is the wall across from that alcove."

Kouryuu splashed upright, more determinedly frustrated now.

"You were with Koumyou in that room, weren't you? The one the monkey won't let me get near."

"I hardly see how a simple lamp could be knowledgeable enough to accurately describe anything a Sanzo priest would do," the lamp replied primly.

Kouryuu growled. Same fucking bullshit, always. "What's got you scared?"

No answer.

Lying back in the water, he let the breath trickle out his lungs until they were no longer buoyant enough to keep him from drifting under. (Okay, so maybe he could stand to fatten up a bit. Asceticism was one part of Buddhist practice he'd never had trouble with.)

Kouryuu looked up through the water, seeing nothing. A month of this, already. Damn but he needed something to shoot.

Nothing to shoot here. No animals. No bugs; not even the birds flew directly overhead. Ever. Only the weather touched this place.

And yet. _Yet._ The thought of leaving never once occurred to him. The thought that he might not be able to should have bothered him much more.

Now that his indignation at having been bartered off to some fat mountain-demon (it was not, after all, quite the case) had mostly passed, Kouryuu was determined to accomplish whatever it was his master had in mind. But there was something else, something that felt a little too much like the way his lungs burned for air, only it didn't subside when he breached the surface and inhaled.

 

"Kouryuu! Kouryuu!"

Kouryuu lay back, enjoying the sun since Goku refused to allow him to stay inside, and tried to ignore the caterwauling. It had definitely been a mistake to teach the monkey his name. But he'd seemed more...focussed lately.

"Kouryuu!" Kouryuu sighed and dragged his eyes open to watch whatever it was Goku was doing now.

The monkey sprang gleefully from greening tree to slate shingles and back again. It seemed he was finally getting the idea that Kouryuu was interactive. Having Goku bounce around in front of him was, at least marginally, better than having him bounce around behind, which made the hairs at the back of his neck stand up in some not-altogether-unreasonable predator-prey response.

Kouryuu flipped over onto his stomach, letting his hair fall over his eyes. Working was difficult while Goku was around. Ergo, he had taken to spending his nights in the library with its frustratingly jumbled scrolls while the monkey slept, allowing himself to be dragged outside to doze. As a result, he was getting noticeably browner. Also perhaps a bit immodest, but even at this altitude, the spring days were getting warmer and warmer, and it wasn't like the monkey cared.

Kouryuu woke with the evening chill as the sun dipped below the castle wall. Goku was curled up beside him, his strange golden eyes wide open, staring at Kouryuu like he was a puzzle. It was a look Kouryuu had caught on that board, open face more than once in the past several days.

"What do you want, you stupid chimp?" Kouryuu grumbled softly.

Goku blinked at him. The gentle wind ruffling his hair drew Kouryuu's attention to the metallic gleam of his power-limiter. Brushing Goku's hair out of the way, Kouryuu took a closer look at the circlet.

What had been as thin as a blade of grass was now almost as wide as Kouryuu's finger. Kouryuu narrowed his eyes, his mind racing.

"The fuck is going on here?" Kouryuu asked the silent wind.

Goku pressed his head into Kouryuu's touch; Kouryuu pulled his hand back with what was maybe a little tousle.

"The fuck am I supposed to do with you?" he asked Goku plaintively.

Goku blinked at him again. Then his stomach growled.

Kouryuu rolled onto his back and groaned. "Idiot monkey."

 

Just how much Goku was changing became evident in the days that followed. Kouryuu walked into the kitchen one evening, Goku zipping electron-like somewhere in his radius.

Opening the fridge, Kouryuu pulled out a stack of dishes. The stir-fry was hot. Kouryuu had come to accept that it was less like a refrigerator and more like the world's fastest chef. Kouryuu didn't glare too much and it provided him with food: it was an arrangement he could live with.

To Kouryuu's surprise, instead of immediately slamming the refrigerator closed so he could drag out a dripping hunk of dead animal, Goku caught the door and pulled out a gigantic bowl of shrimp tempura. With a determined expression on his face, he extracted a pair of chopsticks from the drawer that usually provided them for Kouryuu and sat down at the kitchen table.

Slightly bemused, Kouryuu sat down across from him and started to eat, watching out of the corner of his eye. Goku was having a bit of trouble with the proper positioning of chopsticks. He was clever with his hands, though. Now for the tempura. God, but that bowl was large enough to swim in. That was one. Two tries. Three, and the monkey was getting impatient now. Four—

 _Crack_. Kouryuu looked up to see an expression of bewilderment on Goku's face.

Goku stumped around the table to the magic drawer, pulled out another pair of chopsticks, and stumped back, planted himself determinedly behind the bowl.

One. Two—

 _Crack_. His fingers must have been too strong for the brittle wood. Glancing warily at Kouryuu, Goku carefully laid the snapped bits on the table by the first pair and got up again.

Goku sat looking mournfully at his food, third pair of chopsticks in hand. Kouryuu shook his head.

"Goku."

Bright eyes instantly on his, barraging him with a welter of jumbled and confused emotion. Kouryuu raised his chopsticks and then, very deliberately, laid them on the table. He picked up a chunk of chicken with his fingers and popped it into his mouth for emphasis.

Goku's face blinked incredulously for a moment, then broke into a blinding grin. He impaled a shrimp on one of his claws and ate it. His eyes went wide. Kouryuu found himself smiling back.

The tempura disappeared very, very quickly.

 

That week, Kouryuu decided to press his luck. _Something_ was happening, and Goku was much more lucid now than he'd been the last time Kouryuu had tried the tower. Maybe he could persuade the monkey not to freak out.

Goku fidgeted more the closer they came, sniffing the air and ranging progressively closer to Kouryuu. Late afternoon sunlight slanted through regularly spaced windows to brighten the dreary granite corridor in slices.

Kouryuu walked steadily forward. Goku started whining unhappily, a high, unpleasant, nasal sound. When Kouryuu swiped at him with his fan, he skittered out of the way. His steps grew increasingly reluctant the closer the door came until finally he stopped, wild-eyed and almost quivering.

Kouryuu took another step. He was brought up short by a hand on his arm. The grip was light, almost imploring, but Goku's fingers were strong.

"Let me go, monkey," Kouryuu turned to glare him down. "I need to do this."

"Kouryuu," Goku said, but Kouryuu stood firm against the unfamiliar twinge in his chest and tugged his hand away.

"I never asked you to come along. Either be quiet or get out of my face."

Goku met Kouryuu's eyes belligerently.

"I'm. Going," said Kouryuu. Suiting actions to words, he turned and resumed his advance on the tower door.

Nothing stopped him this time. After a few paces, Goku caught up with him, a sulking shadow in the corner of his eye.

Kouryuu halted. Here it was. Tall, plain wood bound and hinged with iron, identical to every other door in the castle. Here was hoping it wasn't something nastier that Goku was supposed to be guarding. One hand on the butt of his gun, Kouryuu reached for the handle.

"No." Suddenly, Goku was in front of him, holding the door closed.

"Get out of my way," Kouryuu told him.

" _No_." A great furrow of concern and consternation creased his brow. "Don't go in there, Kouryuu."

"Why not? What's in there?"

"You shouldn't! You can't! I don't like it!" Goku wailed.

Kouryuu narrowed his eyes, bristling. "Sadly for you, I don't give a shit. _Move_."

"No!"

Kouryuu pressed his gun against Goku's forehead, just below the limiter. " _Move_."

A brown hand knocked the gun away with enough force to make Kouryuu's hand numb.

"Motherf—" There was no sunlight in the hall now.

"Stop it, Kouryuu!"

"Whatever's in there, my master wanted me to find it. I'm not here to be your goddamn playmate!"

"Leave it alone! Why do you need to? Why can't you just _stop_?"

"Get out of my way, you stupid monkey!"

"Kouryuu, don't make me—!"

"It's none of your fucking business, Goku. Now get out of my way!"

Kouryuu yanked at the doorknob, which he'd kept hold of even with Goku snarling and planted in front of it, all sharp teeth and tense muscle. The reaction was nothing like he'd expected. Goku exploded at him with a shout that might have been, _I won't let you, Konzen!_

Kouryuu hit the wall dazed and barely had time to register the feeling of the floor beneath him before he was yanked up roughly and lifted over a bony shoulder that quickly propelled itself out a window, the noise of glass breaking oddly muted.

The sound of the first clash of thunder had been lost in Goku's roar. It rumbled with the voice of a waterfall now. Rain hit Kouryuu like fists as he sailed through the air, pounded him into the sudden mud of the ground once they landed. He was vaguely aware of Goku's bare, callused foot by his face and a voice, slightly out of sync, saying, _They can't have you back!_

 

Kouryuu lay stunned and overloaded outside time, his perceptions gradually leaching back into his head. _The rain is Goku's_ , he thought, and watched him hurl himself over the fortress walls, illuminated by lightning, throwing his rage against some invisible barrier two hundred feet in the air. Both the storm and Goku's furious assault lasted for days. Limping slightly, Kouryuu staggered inside.

This had happened often before his arrival, Kouryuu knew instinctively. He had never been very sensitive, psychically speaking, except for Goku's constant calling (it had to have been Goku; it had stopped as soon as he walked through the thrice-damned gate, after all); but he could feel the power in this storm. It was more than just the outburst of an animal rattling the bars of its cage, Kouryuu thought, sitting on the deep sill of a window in an empty room after he had mustered himself to wash and change back into his master's cast-offs. This was a railing against the unfairness of the universe, deep and complex with hurt so potent Kouryuu could barely sleep. His dreams were haunted by watching eyes, their regard grown less frightening and more disturbing. With a growl, Kouryuu abandoned his vantage-point. The rain gained nothing from his witness.

Kouryuu wandered back downstairs, as unquiet as the gutted heavens. He opened a drawer in the kitchen and it offered him a pack of cigarettes. He slammed it closed with a growl.

A few of his ribs felt bruised, and his shoulder felt somewhat strained. He carried the lamp in his other hand and went resolutely back to the tower. Kouryuu refused to be intimidated by Goku's self-indulgent tantrum; and besides, he needed to retrieve his gun.

There was no need for worry; Goku was entirely oblivious to Kouryuu's presence near the forbidden tower. Kouryuu stooped to pick up his Smith and Wesson.

The door opened grudgingly under his hand, as though even whatever oiled the rest of the doors in the castle so they pivoted effortlessly on their hinges was afraid to touch it. The rusty creak almost made him jump.

 _Foolishness_. Kouryuu let the door grate closed behind him. The silence was startling, an abrupt absence of the constant stormy racket backgrounding the past few days.

Walking over to a table standing in front of an eerily quiet, hail-pounded window, Kouryuu saw a hand of poker laid out on it. Hold'em, Koumyou's preferred game.

The dealer's chip was a petal from a cherry blossom, still somehow fresh and soft under his fingers. The pot had been swept to the other side.

The first two cards of the flop were kings: the king of diamonds and the king of spades.

"Rich deck," Kouryuu murmured, and the hush was so absolute his voice sounded like an echo. A chill ran up his back. No, he wasn't psychic, but this was giving him the creeps.

There was a diamond on the king of spades' forehead. Dark hair and dark robe fanned out as he tuned to strike, a spray of blood flying from where his right eye had been. His beard was flecked with foam. Next to him, the king of diamonds was a sober, greying man. He stood tall and motionless, clad in robes of practically funereal splendour. His pin-prick eyes seemed almost sad, in contrast to the mad glint of the spade-king's. Kouryuu was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

The last flop card was the queen of hearts. Her hair dripped red with blood as it spilled over the cushions of her divan to leak onto the transverse image. Smoke curled lazily from a cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth. She held her asymmetrical heart in her hands as if to consider it, the red edges of her wound only barely visible in profile. The image was framed, Kouryuu noted, with long, furled scrolls.

Kouryuu's eyes followed the course of the game automatically. There was a space, and then the turn, the queen of clubs. Feathery hair half-hid her face. She stood on a flight of stairs in a monochrome portrait; only one eye was visible, a startling green. There were other flashes of colour: on the bloody end of the scroll she held in one hand, as well as in a darker string that was a spill of intestines connecting the two-sided figure. In a curious synchronicity, the card's border was a filmy, wavering band of smoke.

The river card, the king of hearts, was skewed towards the winning side of the table, as though someone had pulled it over to take a closer look. Its stylised face had some serious gender-identity issues, leering out from a frame of tumbling black curls. A large, sun-shaped pendant hung on his breast.

Each player's hole cards were turned face-up. The dealer had held two aces: the ace of hearts and the ace of spades. There was a bullet hole drawn through the single heart. The ace of spades was depicted, as had been the king, in the original style, which were spades in name only. A sword crossed the card's textured whiteness, blood clearly dripping down the blade from the hilt.

Kouryuu's eyes tracked across the table to see the winning hand, expecting a flush. What he saw instead were two jokers. _Those aren't supposed to be in there_.

The black joker was sinister, dark and smirking and entwined in a wreath of helixed ladders and familiar billows of paper; but the red joker was what stopped his breath. Even stylised and stilted, he knew that face. Those golden eyes increasingly frequently unsettled him with their regard. He held a staff and there was a symbol Kouryuu hadn't seen before on his chest. Blood spattered his manacled hands and angular face. There was something inexplicably empty in the sharp-edged depiction of his expression, and Kouryuu thought of his voice in the hall before he'd gone postal.

Kouryuu could see the story laid out on the table. The cards read almost more like tarot than poker. The king of hearts lay like an accusation where its model had left it. He felt an odd lurch when he glanced again at the ace of hearts. His certainty was growing with the momentum of colliding trains.

There were three violent cards: the king of spades, the red joker, and the ace of spades which had been revealed between them in the sequence of events. The sword, which had been bloodied from the hilt down. There was a potent relevance to the decorum with which the king of diamonds was laid out, a heavy weight. The carnage surrounding the interlinked queens spoke of tragedy.

The king of hearts, laying pristine between the king of spades and ace of hearts, did nothing to break the flow of violence. The sword seemed the real dividing line, on the near side death, then beyond it Goku, and beyond Goku the dark Joker. Kouryuu couldn't help noticing which side the king of hearts was on.

Kouryuu left the room and shut the door behind him. He walked down the stairs, along the corridor, and out the south garden door, leaving the lamp on the floor inside.


	3. Chapter 3

Sheets of warm rain drenched Kouryuu instantly. He felt the anger in the storm coursing through his veins, running with the ire he hadn't realised he'd taken down from the tower.

"Goku!" Kouryuu shouted into the sky. After the insulated silence in the tower room, the storm's cacophony was deafening.

"Goku!" he yelled again. "Come down here, you stupid monkey!"

"You stupid ape!" he screamed.

The clouds spat out a flash of growling lightning as if in answer, outlining a shadow that glinted with flecks of gold high atop the wall.

"Goku!"

Kouryuu stood again in darkness. The lightning only told him Goku was no longer there.

Between one breath and the next he reappeared, less than a hand's breadth away. Kouryuu thought he must have inhaled and smelled heaven on him. The next he saw of Goku's eyes, they were accusing. Bolstered by his own sourceless rage, Kouryuu stood ramrod straight against the crazed force of Goku's fury and heat and power. He was boring through Kouryuu with white-rimmed, wide-pupilled eyes, so upset he couldn't speak. Kouryuu felt his skin starting to tingle, as though the lightning were zeroing in.

Dragging out his sodden fan, he rapped it upside Goku's head in one swift movement.

"Snap out of it!"

Goku glared. Kouryuu raised the fan again. Goku took another look at his face and seemed to grow almost a little abashed.

Kouryuu grabbed his arm and started walking. "C'mon. Idiot."

Not understanding, Goku dug in his heels a little at first; but Kouryuu tugged him firmly onward, toward the keep, and he caught on eventually. Prudently, Kouryuu took them in by a different door than the one he'd come out, further from the offending tower. They walked in draughty darkness to the kitchen.

Kouryuu nuked some soup and poked around until he found a cabinet that would magic him up some towels. He dropped one over Goku's head and wrapped himself in another. Goku had quieted down, and fast, but he was watching Kouryuu mistrustfully from underneath the towel.

"You forget how to talk again?" Kouryuu asked. He didn't bother with a spoon, just picked up the bowl and drank.

Goku didn't make a move. Stupid monkey was still being freaky.

"You're going to catch pneumonia," Kouryuu told him.

"You went up there again," Goku accused.

"So sue me. You're not my mother."

Goku frowned. "I was trying to protect you."

"Yeah, and then you tried to dismantle the mountain. I can handle myself."

The soup was finally warming Kouryuu's stomach, but his gut had clenched tight again. Suddenly, he didn't feel very hungry. Kouryuu got up and dumped his soup in the sink.

"Where are you going?"

Kouryuu scowled at him. "None of your business."

Goku was abruptly between Kouryuu and the door, towel abandoned by his chair.

Kouryuu stared him down. "Do you really want to start that up again?"

Goku snarled back at him with surprisingly un-pointy teeth in a manner which indicated he understood that tone of voice very well.

"Stupid monkey," grumbled Kouryuu. It was getting to be his mantra. He had the satisfaction of seeing the toothy shadow that was Goku bristle. "Try not to be such an idiot."

With that, he swept past a baffled Goku and hurried down the corridor towards where he'd left the lamp. Kouryuu goosebumped. For an enchanted fortress, this place sure had a lot of cracks. The baths were in the basement, and there was no way Kouryuu was going down there without a light. If Goku, who had recovered enough to follow him and was vibrating unhappily behind him, didn't like it, then that was his problem.

"Well, finally! It's been quite long enough, don't you think?" the lamp scolded him.

"Shut up," Kouryuu told it.

"You know, I've been very helpful to you. A little appreciation wouldn't—"

The lamp broke off abruptly when Kouryuu turned and it caught sight of Goku's face. "Er."

Gritting his teeth, Kouryuu started back the way he'd come. Goku looked even more confused then ever.

 

Kouryuu sat, thinking, in the water. Goku was moping all the way at the end, immersed in water hotter than Kouryuu could stand.

He wasn't mad at Goku. If anything, he was mad _for_ Goku, and mad at...well, things it wasn't useful to get mad at. But damn the way he'd been sent here, he didn't answer to the grabby little shit.

He still didn't really know what he was supposed to be accomplishing here. Something was changing, though; he could see it happening. It would be easy to say he knew _what_ was happening, but the whys were much harder to pin down. The most he had were very strong suspicions about how any of this tied in to Goku's bloody past, as obscuring and ephemeral as the steam rising off the bath.

Maybe he could ask Goku, since Goku was talking now. If Goku would talk to him. Kouryuu had no desire to go dragging him out of the middle of another thunderstorm. Tomorrow would probably find him back in the library. Kouryuu had no illusions that he'd like anything he found any better than he'd liked what he'd found in the tower, but he was sick and tired of being yanked around blind. It was as though his very presence was altering Goku. From what? To what? Against his will? A month ago, Goku's only word had been his name.

Kouryuu wasn't certain he wanted any part of this. Not that anyone had asked him.

Kouryuu sank deeper into the warm water, trying not to think of anything. When his eyes started drooping closed, he clambered out and dried off. His own robes, clean and dry, were lying on a bench by the door. They had a warm and comforting weight. Familiar, like the heft of his gun.

Goku hurried to follow him. Kouryuu was too tired to snap at him for it.

Goku trailed him up the stairs and all the way around to his room. Keeping to his default policy, Kouryuu ignored him and crawled into bed, robes and all. He'd had enough of being cold.

"Good night, lamp," he said and settled in with his back to Goku. "Good night, Goku," he added somewhat pointedly.

The lamp said, _Good night, Kouryuu,_ and promptly switched itself off. Goku stood breathing in the direction of the bed for a while. Then, hesitantly, he picked up the covers and slipped in behind Kouryuu.

Kouryuu tensed, but Goku only curled up behind him like he couldn't get warm enough either. This didn't feel like paranoia. It felt like...

With a wry snort for his own sentimentality, Kouryuu let his eyes fall closed.

 

Kouryuu woke up the next morning far more pleasantly than he had in quite some time. He was warm, rested, and comfortable.

That lasted all of five seconds, until Kouryuu realised two things: he was also hard, and Goku had him in a death grip. Fuck morning wood.

 _Well_. Kouryuu grit his teeth and slipped very carefully out of Goku's grasp. Wiggling against Goku's firm, muscular body didn't help his situation.

The dresser snickered. Kouryuu readjusted his robes, which had hiked up, and flipped it off. That was the nice thing about robes.

It was barely fifteen minutes before Goku found him in the library. Kouryuu wondered if he'd skipped breakfast. Most of the time Goku wasn't hovering around Kouryuu, he was in the kitchen. Kouryuu knew for a fact he hadn't eaten in days. Stupid monkey.

"Do you remember anything before you were here?"

Goku curled a little tighter in the chair next to Kouryuu's, hugging his knees.

"I remember something that smelled like the tower. And...and blood. That's all."

"Well, that's helpful. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, monkey."

Goku unwound slightly.

"What're you doing?"

Kouryuu glanced discreetly sideways. Goku was fidgeting. Kouryuu suppressed a smirk.

"Seeing if the books remember more than you do," he replied.

"Oh." Goku subsided.

"Kouryuu." He'd made it a whole half an hour this time. "Kouryuu, I'm hungry."

"What do you want me to do about it? You know where the kitchen is."

Goku looked at him with pleading eyes.

"I'm not _going_ anywhere, you stupid monkey. Get a grip."

Despite his best efforts, Goku remained all but glued to his side. As though their confrontation had burst a dam, Goku was a river of words, burbling constantly in his ear as he had in his mind for all those years. When Kouryuu took to spending his nights in the library again—mornings when Goku insisted on bedding with him were getting too embarrassing—Goku fell asleep in the comfortable chair by the windows.

Kouryuu allowed himself to be dragged outside to doze once more. Goku bounced and chattered, evidently not caring whether Kouryuu listened or not. Every now and then, a compact, solid presence would settle down next to him on the grass. The monkey probably slept almost as much as he ate.

"Are you two fucking yet?" the armoire asked out of nowhere one day.

" _Excuse me?_ " Kouryuu stopped pulling on his shirt mid-motion.

"Well, it's not like you sleep _here_ anymore. I was just curious whether you're only metaphorically attached at the hip, or if it's literal, too."

Kouryuu finished wriggling into the shirt, suddenly acutely conscious how tight it was. He glared at the wardrobe.

"There _has_ been a certain amount of speculation regarding the sexual tension," the lamp chimed in. "Demonstrably, even a block of wood can pick up on it."

"Hey!"

"Would the both of you shut up?"

Kouryuu grabbed the lamp and walked out.

"It wouldn't hurt you to take the stick out of your ass!" the armoire called after them. Kouryuu ignored it.

"I don't know why you're being so unreasonable," the lamp continued. "Clearly, you're not wholly adverse to the idea."

"Why do you care, wax-brain?"

Kouryuu had the odd impression of the flame shrugging.

"I didn't know if you've noticed but this isn't a terribly interesting place, and there is only so much of Goku throwing himself at the mountain you can live vicariously without it getting old."

"I can make your life a whole lot _more_ interesting," Kouryuu threatened.

"Ah no, no, that won't be necessary."

"Tch."

All that night, Kouryuu found his eyes drifting from his books to Goku's ungraceful sprawl under the moonlight spilling in through the windows. When he noticed the light's slow movement had progressed a full six inches, he yanked his eyes back to the scroll in front of him, mentally berating himself for staring.

What the hell did a hunk of talking cherrywood know about anything? Kouryuu's eyes slid back again as he thought. Goku was slumped diagonally across the chair, limbs spilling out over the arms and sides, drool oozing from one corner of his mouth. Kouryuu had never in his life had an overwhelming desire to fuck something, and _this_ was supposed to excite his interest? Ridiculous.

The text was useless. Kouryuu had gone through more Buddhist philosophy in the past three months then he'd swallowed in all his time under Koumyou. Dammit, that hadn't come out right. It would be just like Koumyou to put him through all this for no other reason.

Kouryuu was ready to shoot something by time the moon passed above the castle and Goku was touched only by the flickering lamp light. He felt like he was going in circles. The lines of characters were spidery little blobs scrolling in ranks down the page.

Goku's ears were almost completely rounded now, his pupils all but indistinguishable from human. Kouryuu looked at the hand-wide limiter and thought he knew what his master had done. But someone—well, _Someone_ —had interfered.

Kouryuu closed the book and slumped, letting his head tip backwards over the slats of the chair in the grey dawn light, feeling prickly all over and deeply unquiet.

 

"What's wrong, Kouryuu? C'mon, you can tell me!"

Kouryuu stared up through greening branches at the clouds wisping overhead and rubbed the dark circles under his eyes. It had been about three days, stretched by pointless insomnia. Goku's enthusiasm for everything, evidently including worrying, was appalling. Firmly, he kept his gaze locked on the safely distant clouds, not Goku's habitual shirtlessness. This was patently ridiculous.

"Kouryuu!" Goku whined.

It was almost as bad as the incessant calling in his back-brain had been. The monkey seemed genuinely distressed, which only made it worse. Kouryuu certainly wasn't going to _tell_ him...! Not that there were any grounds for that overdressed cupboard's innuendos. Ought to set the damned thing on fire.

"I'm trying to sleep, monkey. Go away."

"No you're not," Goku contradicted him.

Kouryuu shot him a dirty look.

"You're not! You're brooding. I recognise it 'cause you do it a lot."

"Tell me," said Kouryuu sourly, "Why was it necessary that you learn to speak?"

Goku frowned. "Why aren't you ever happy, Kouryuu?" he asked more seriously.

That struck a genuine chill in his bones. It was a little too close to what Goku had said outside the west tower.

But it didn't look like Goku was going to go off again. He looked frustrated, not feral. The question hung unasked in the air. _Don't you like it here?_ Kouryuu shifted uncomfortably.

It was so hard guessing what all Goku knew, or remembered. Did he know why Kouryuu was here? (Kouryuu's certainty that _he_ did had flagged substantially.) Remember shouting through the back of Kouryuu's mind for all those years? Or pounding himself jack-hammer-like against the encircling walls? All of Goku's babble was in the present; he avoided the past like a swarm of locusts.

Kouryuu didn't know what Goku was aiming at with all of this snuggling up next to him, giving comfort or seeking it. He seemed to have figured instinctively that he got to Kouryuu better without words than with them. After a few stubborn moments of resistance, Kouryuu gave in and relaxed. Just a little.

"Kouryuu." It was true, he was incapable of keeping quiet.

Kouryuu made an aggrieved sound. But Goku had apparently changed his mind and trailed off into silence.

Kouryuu slept; he didn't think Goku had. He woke slumped over on the lawn, tangled up in his robes and Goku's limbs. Goku's eyes were there watching when Kouryuu opened his own.

He found he had drawn Goku to him in his sleep, one treacherous arm draped over his waist, fingertips brushing Goku's shoulder blades. Kouryuu's pulse had risen dramatically, his nostrils flooded with Goku's loamy scent. Moist, parted lips. The steady bellows movement of his chest had paused.

Kouryuu inhaled deeply, arm tightening fractionally. Leaned in just barely, just enough. Moist, parted lips yielded a taste that was something like electricity, down to the buzzing jolt that shot through him all the way from his teeth to his toes.

Goku's arms were already around him. Kouryuu hadn't noticed through the robes, but now they were crushing them together so he couldn't escape the ardent kiss. Goku kissed him like it was a revelation, hot and messy and eager. Kouryuu felt himself spinning over the edge of some rational precipice. This was like falling. At least half of him was convinced he'd tumble through a pit in the ground if he let go. The dizzying rush was the only reason he clung to Goku so tightly. _Sure_.

The need for closeness was overwhelming, an insensible desire to fuse himself to Goku, body to body. It wasn't until their hips ground together, almost by accident, that Kouryuu paused plundering Goku's mouth in turn. The kiss had progressed quickly to something deep and arousing. Kouryuu hissed at the pressure on the hardness in his jeans, a language Goku seemed already to understand because he rocked his hips forward with a little growl of his own. Sharp teeth nipped a reminder at Kouryuu's mouth: pay attention.

Kouryuu pulled Goku in closer, if that was possible, and made this kiss fierce and demanding. Goku responded enthusiastically. One of his hands carded up through Kouryuu's hair. What _was_ his obsession with Kouryuu's hair? Remnant hints of claws elicited a shudder; strong fingers gripped.

Inhaling sharply with the accompanying rush of heat, Kouryuu rolled them over, Goku pinned beneath him. He rocked his straddling hips against Goku's, taking panted breaths as often as kisses from Goku's mouth as he arched up, lifting them both off the ground.

Naked, naked, naked. Daft gods above, they needed to be naked. Kouryuu scrambled at his heavy, cumbersome, _stupid_ robes, getting tangled up in them and Goku's arms. Their combined efforts to free him resulted only in a lot of distracting wriggling that left them more desperate and less coordinated than ever.

Kouryuu was almost shaking with the mounting pressure. Goku emitted another low growl that sent jolts of fire down Kouryuu's spine to his dick, and ripped through the inconvenient fabric. Gods. _Gods_. Kouryuu would worry later about how hot that got him. He was close, so close, skin to Goku's skin at last, taste of his skin, his sweat, feel of his throat vibrating.

Liberated, Kouryuu's hands started working on jeans, someone's jeans, frantically pushed them down and kicked them off.

Yes, yes, finally, yes. They didn't even have the brain function to coordinate a kiss. Hands and mouths wandered; messy, clumsy bites and strokes, hips working independently to drive their erections together, forcing strangled, guttural sounds from both of them.

Goku's hand with its callused fingers closed around their cocks and worked them hard. Fast. Kouryuu could feel the moans being pulled from somewhere deep in his chest, but couldn't hear them for the sound of his name in Goku's mouth.

Goku's hand was rough and nimble, his body hot and smooth. His free hand was buried in Kouryuu's thick hair again, holding him still so that mouth could bite and suck marks onto his skin. He was somehow on his back in the grass, overwhelmed and surrounded. Their rhythm was already broken and uneven, too near something bright and terrible.

Orgasm was like an avalanche, bursting out of him until he was as bare as a mountainside. Goku yelped and came after him, shuddering his climax out between them in cool stripes on Kouryuu's stomach.

They lay exhausted, simply breathing. Kouryuu tilted his face up into the sun, Goku collapsed on top of him like a puppet with its strings cut. He felt no inclination whatever to move. Or to think. _God, don't let me start to think_. If he thought, he was going to freak out about this; thinking could wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Kouryuu woke again in the dimming dusk. He was warm enough in the summer night with Goku radiating heat atop him, but Goku must have been a little chilled by the breeze because he was shifting like he wanted to burrow into Kouryuu.

"Wake up, monkey," Kouryuu said softly.

Goku wriggled, squinted his eyes open, and yawned cavernously. Kouryuu poked him in the ribs.

"C'mon. I'm not staying here all night."

Goku leaned down and kissed him; Kouryuu responded, successfully diverted. Oh. Yeah. No way to pretend _that_ hadn't happened.

"Mrrch." Kouryuu mustered the will to push him away. "I'm going to teach you how to brush your teeth. Now get up. Bath first, and then we'll shovel some food into your stomach."

Goku's eyes went glassy at the mention of food, and Kouryuu was able to prod him upright and in the direction of the baths. He paused to recover their jeans but left the shredded remnants of his robes. A self-conscious flush crept up his neck as he stood looking at them.

"Kouryuu?" Goku was looking inquiringly at him.

"It's nothing." Kouryuu turned back to the castle.

Kouryuu sighed contentment. They were clean, finally, though not for want of trying on Goku's part. They'd scandalised the lamp, probably. Well, Kouryuu was much more interested in what Goku was doing with his hands than in what the furniture thought. You'd think a massage from someone with claws would be a disaster, but Goku's characteristically disproportionate enthusiasm for exploring Kouryuu's body had him well on his way to liquefying Kouryuu from the brain on down.

It was a good thing they had reached Kouryuu's bed already, because he seriously doubted his ability to move right now. Goku dug into a particularly recalcitrant knot, extracting a pleased groan from his subject. He seemed to be incapable of keeping his mouth out of the business either, spotting Kouryuu's back with unpredictable kisses that kept his attention and other things stirred up.

Goku worked his way down Kouryuu's body with exquisite slowness, kneading his ass with a passion that probably crossed the line into groping. His tongue wandered a breath-catching trail down the cleft, sidetracking into a kiss and then a playful bite on one cheek.

When Goku started on his feet, Kouryuu was almost ready to abandon his firmly held opinion that all people were abysmal wastes of air. Fuck, he hadn't known feet could _feel_ like that. Kouryuu made inarticulate sounds into his pillow and offered no resistance when Goku decided to flip him over.

Those lips and inquisitive fingers smoothed back up his legs with savouring attention. A touch to the skin high on his thigh made him shudder and gasp. Hot breath like a furnace blast blew over the head of his very erect cock, which jerked upwards of its own volition.

"Holy _fffuck_ —" Kouryuu hissed.

Kouryuu couldn't resist the impulse to look down, and so caught the avid look on Goku's face just before his mouth descended on Kouryuu's cock. Goku's eyes closed in rapture, and his own almost crossed. The sight of Goku's lips sliding slowly down his length was deliciously obscene. A choked moan escaped his throat and his hips jerked up into that mind-melting heat, causing Goku to stop playing with his balls and the sensitive skin behind them and hold his hips down. Kouryuu caught his eyes at last, heavy and dark with bright gold rims while he tongued the bottom-vein of Kouryuu's cock, licked stripes along its length, sucked teasingly at his balls. The things Goku was doing with his mouth more than made up for what came out of it the rest of the time. More than. Kouryuu pressed his hips up to feel strong hands push him down.

Goku sucked hard on the head of Kouryuu's cock, then even more fiercely near the top of his hip. Teeth there, a nascent mark. He licked randomly across Kouryuu's stomach, now up and now down until Kouryuu yanked him to where he could kiss him. His hands moved smoothly over Goku's sweaty skin, grabbing and stroking and scratching a little in a way he was discovering had an inspiring effect on the crazy ape.

But Goku would not be derailed, and his own hands were equally busy, mouth spurring off on tangents to his jaw and nose and collarbone. He didn't have to work hard to persuade Kouryuu to let him trail downwards again. Worrying at his nipples left him breathless and writhing, one leg drawing up to rub Goku's still-jeans-covered erection. Goku's mouth enveloped his cock again with peculiar focus. He went down, and down, and _swallowed_.

Kouryuu's eyes stuttered open and closed, and he gasped. His hips twitched involuntarily, accomplishing nothing; but Goku swallowed again, and then started to move. His rhythm soon had Kouryuu all but keening, wanting more, wanting it not to stop. He could feel orgasm building behind his eyes and teeth and below his stomach until Goku took him in again, breath exhaled into the sweat-soaked mat of hair there, and he lost it.

Goku drank him down like the best thing since hot soup, the little pleased noises he made deep in his throat coaxing the last trembling spasms out of his cock. He pulled off only reluctantly and inhaled the musky scent from Kouryuu's groin. He nipped back up Kouryuu's torso to his mouth. Kouryuu mmphed appreciatively.

Goku rocked his hips, dick obviously straining his jeans. Kouryuu trailed his hands down to the waistband of Goku's pants and lazily traced the skin beneath it. Goku moaned eagerly into his mouth and pressed closer.

"Tch," Kouryuu said and levered himself a space in which to work on Goku's fly. The heel of his hand pressed against Goku's erection got him a panting _please_ and a lingering pull of teeth on his bottom lip. Kouryuu licked it reflexively, catching Goku's lips as well.

Goku's zip yielded to his deliberate manipulations and his cock sprang free. His hand on it made Goku instantly pliable; Kouryuu sat up, taking Goku perforce with him. A few tugs, and he had Goku on his back. Kouryuu pushed the jeans out of the way some more on his way down.

The feel of Goku's cock on his tongue, heavy and hot, was nothing his imagination had provided. He had an inexplicable desire to swallow it as Goku had swallowed him, to lick and suck until Goku was reduced from begging to whimpers, to press the sweet spot behind his balls or roll them in his palm. Goku was coming already, though; Kouryuu suddenly realised Goku had been repeating his name. He was interrupted now by a gasp and a moan and a chatter of teeth. He tasted sharp and strange and bitter, and still a little like lightning. Kouryuu wriggled back to face-level and allowed Goku to kiss his taste out of his mouth. God, that was hot.

Eventually, Goku wriggled the rest of the way out of his jeans. He slid cleverly inside Kouryuu's arms and wound his own around Kouryuu to complete his possession.

"Comfortable?" Kouryuu tried for dry, but a distressing amount of affection leaked out of his voice.

"Hrmph." Goku yawned, then continued in an unusually thoughtful tone. "I think I wanted to do that since the first time I saw you."

"That in particular?"

Goku grunted. "More or less. You're delicious, you know." He licked the nearest stripe of skin for emphasis.

Kouryuu shivered in the good way. A small, overpowered section of his brain moaned that his edge was _gone_ , but even it couldn't muster much indignation right now. "What stopped you?" he asked carefully.

"It's...I don't know. It's like I knew you already then. I knew who you were, only I couldn't remember." Kouryuu could hear the frown in the slow delivery of Goku's words. "I still feel—like, like you're you but not quite _you_. I think...it scared me.

"It's weird remembering things before you came. I know I was _alone_ for a long time. It was like a, a big chunk of me was ripped out and empty; that's loneliness, right?"

 _Loss_ , Kouryuu thought and maybe snuggled just a bit closer, thinking of cards in a room in the west tower that scared Goku quite literally out of his mind.

"I think...maybe I used to be somewhere else. Maybe I did something really, really bad and now I'm being punished. But _you're_ here now, so it must be all right. As long as you're here, it's all right."

"Tch. You don't need me to be all right." If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. "Not that I'm planning on leaving you unsupervised."

 

It was awhile still before he found it, more weeks of combing through the jumbled library, although that was at best a rough guess. Kouryuu had cycled through diurnal habits to nocturnal and back again so often that his sense of night and day and time in general had been completely screwed even before Goku discovered this new and better way of distracting him.

Kouryuu had some inkling of what he was reading even before the picture. _Child of the Earth. Wild. Powerful._ It explained a lot. The golden colour of his eyes wasn't apparent in the black ink drawing; it resembled the depiction on the card in the tower more than Goku himself. Son Goku, apparently. He was posed in an entirely un-Goku-like manner, his limbs set in a balanced counterpoint, hand over, hand under, ankles not quite crossed. He wore grieves and armour in a formal, archaic style. Waving lines provided the framing suggestion of a cape and long strands of hair. Something, it had more the look of a crown than a power limiter, was settled on his head. The expression was blank and unfocussed, as though the artist had not considered the necessity of adding one.

The account wasn't very detailed; it described the nature of what it referred to as the Seiten Taisei but remained silent on the subject of Goku's history. Truly not a force to be loosed freely on the world.

Kouryuu frowned and carefully paged through the rest of the text; it contained nothing useful. He stood and walked out into the grounds where Goku was busy bouncing from tree to tree.

"Monkey!"

Goku stopped and looked over at him. "Hey, Kouryuu! Watch—!"

"Come down from there," Kouryuu interrupted. "We're leaving."

Goku dropped off the branch he'd been hanging from and stared at him incredulously.

"Leaving?"

"Now," Kouryuu said.

Goku looked around nervously. "Can we?"

"I'm certainly not staying locked up in here forever."

Goku's eyes were pretty wobbly for a remorseless scourge of heaven and earth.

Kouryuu sighed and rolled his eyes. "Are you coming or not?"

The look of dawning joy on Goku's face stirred something warm in Kouryuu's chest that he chose not to examine too closely and only increased his irritation. Kouryuu left the lamp up in his room with the insufferable armoire. He wasn't quite sure whether or not it was punishment: they almost seemed to enjoy one another's company. It wasn't too likely anyone else would be stopping by in the foreseeable future.

Goku eyed the approaching gate with mounting worry. Kouryuu kept his own uncertainty tightly under wraps; there was only one way to find out if he was right about this. If he'd been sent as a control on Goku, they could simply walk out.

There was, thankfully, no surly gargoyle on the inside of the gate. There was no bar or lock that Kouryuu could see, and nothing prevented it from swinging open with his push.

"Leaving so soon?" the door knocker grated at him.

"Go rust yourself," Kouryuu snapped back at it.

Impatiently, he tugged Goku out the gate after him. The monkey's steps were hesitant, but he followed. He craned his neck around at the small strip of open ground before the edge of the forest, as though he couldn't absorb his own freedom. He kept looking from Kouryuu to the gate and then back to Kouryuu and up at the sky, as though it looked somehow different from the outside.

Kouryuu rolled his eyes. "Don't look so impressed. It just means we've both been screwed."

"Whatever, this is awesome!" Goku ran leaping along the line of trees, then disappeared up into their branches. Kouryuu was just starting on the path into the woods when Goku caromed into him and seized him by the shoulders, leaning up to plant a dizzying kiss on his protesting lips. Goku stood beaming up at him for another second before he leapt back up into the leafy canopy, crowing exuberantly.

The path disappeared about two hours out from the castle, at the point where Kouryuu had found it on his way in. Goku had settled down a little and stuck closer to Kouryuu, although he still insisted on scaring away all huntable wildlife within ten miles. He knew he was going to miss the magic refrigerator at the first iteration of _Kouryuu, I'm hungry!_ He'd brought some food, but there was not way he could carry enough to satisfy Goku's appetite. It was going to be a long walk.

He was glad of Goku's heat in the night; he'd left his master's clothes where he'd found them—he was not a Sanzo yet, and he wasn't impatient to assume the title.

Goku was still wired when they stopped for the night. He wolfed down supper and tackled Kouryuu to the ground. His hot mouth was on Kouryuu's almost before they finished falling. Kouryuu could taste that last apple on him, tart and fresh.

Goku's hands went immediately to the sensitive spots he'd long since mapped out. Kouryuu's objections were instantly forgotten. He'd have to examine that later; now, he was deeply involved in kissing Goku.

Goku's hips jerked against his, causing him to dig his fingernails into Goku's back and moan. Kouryuu fumbled hastily at their pants before Goku could mould himself too tightly to him. He took Goku's cock in hand, watching his eyes flicker and darken. He liked the feel of Goku's cock, the shape and weight of it in his palm. He wanted it in him with a sudden, disturbing intensity, for it to stretch him, to feel it inside him.

"What is it?" Goku asked.

"Hush," Kouryuu told him.

Kouryuu rolled them over and moved his hand faster, his own dick hard and throbbing. This was definitely not the time or the place. He brushed his thumb over the head of Goku's cock, smearing the liquid gathered there and drawing a sharp grunt from Goku. He could at least take Goku like this, tracing the dimensions of his erection with palm and fingers.

Their sex had grown less wildly desperate these past weeks, seeking pleasure more than mere satisfaction. Kouryuu had learned how to make Goku squirm and growl, to unwind him with his hands and mouth.

This was a return to heedless passion, Goku rocking up blindly beneath him, one blunted, human-like hand burying itself in his hair, the other going to jack Kouryuu hard and fast. He was fascinated with Kouryuu's hair, sifting it through his fingers in the sunlight or gripping it by the roots while their bodies twisted and rubbed.

Kouryuu leaned down to feel the pull. Goku's mouth opened beneath his, licking into it hungrily. Their wrists brushed as their hands moved, falling into a frenzied push-pull that broke the joining of their mouths into a chain of moans and gasps.

"Kouryuu." Goku's voice was breathless. His hand tightened in Kouryuu's too-long hair. "Kouryuu!" he repeated and bucked, coming with it on his lips.

Achingly hard, Kouryuu brought his come-smeared hand to his erection, only to have it brushed aside. Goku watched him with steamy, dilated eyes as he redoubled his efforts, dragging the uneven nails of his free hand down the back of Kouryuu's neck.

Kouryuu shouted as he came. He collapsed on top of Goku, suddenly exhausted. A faint shivery sensation lingered along his spine where Goku's fingers had brushed it.

Goku didn't complain; he hardly ever did. He simply linked his arms around Kouryuu and let him find a more comfortable position. A yawn raised Goku's chest, and a small smile rose unbidden to his lips before he dropped away into sleep.

 

"Where are we going?"

Kouryuu was surprised it had taken Goku this long to ask.

"I need to talk to my master," Kouryuu said.

"Koumyou?"

The monkey had been paying attention. Huh.

"I need to punch him in the face," Kouryuu clarified, "and then we're going to have a very long talk about some things."

Goku sighed. "I wish you'd explain stuff to me. You know, just every once in a while."

"After I talk to Koumyou." _That_ was not a conversation Kouryuu was looking forward to. He wasn't sure how Goku was going to react to certain news. There was no question of not telling him, though.

Brooding on that, Kouryuu trudged along through the trackless woods. Goku's energy was not noticeably dampened. They were still a day or so out from the monastery; Kouryuu was much less sure of his direction coming back down than going up; no one was calling him _back_ , after all. But there was a stream that ran close by the monastery, which he had found yesterday and was now following. Goku had managed to either fall or jump into it at first opportunity, and they'd lost several hours while his jeans dried. Somehow, Kouryuu hadn't been able to muster much complaint.

That was yesterday, though, and today Kouryuu was back to stewing. He still hadn't figured out how this was going to go by the time the monastery came into view through the trees. What he wouldn't give for a haircut. And a shirt.

"Are you nervous?" Goku asked.

"No." It was only half a lie. "Try to keep yourself under control. If that's possible," Kouryuu added under his breath.

"It's okay to be nervous."

"Shut up, monkey," Kouryuu told him, although the hand he rested briefly between Goku's shoulder blades was far less confident.


	5. Chapter 5

**Epilogue**

 

The night air was gaining a slight chill again, crisp but somewhat cloudy overhead. There was something in it he didn't like, a muffled foreboding that anticipated lasting for months before coming to a head. The monks were all properly asleep, oblivious; only Koumyou and Kouryuu lingered.

Kouryuu stopped a few paces behind Koumyou, perched on the raised porch. He'd arrived a week ago with hardly a word exchanged ( _You're a jackass_ and _Your manners seem to have gone the way of your personal hygiene_ , to be precise), installing Goku in his cubicle and amending his appearance only insofar as to take a bath and trim his hair. Koumyou had been typically, patiently silent.

"The conversation's been insufferable these last few months," Koumyou continued. "Although there was a pool going on who would survive, you or the beast."

"Your good influence at work, no doubt," Kouryuu told him, sitting down.

"Oh, none whatever. Sadly, our dear brothers remain otherwise unaffected."

Kouryuu wrinkled his nose as Koumyou exhaled a lungful of smoke. "Just be glad I didn't decide to stay up there."

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the urge to come back and yell at me." Koumyou smiled up at the clouds. "You're a little sharp with him, you know."

"If he doesn't like it, he can still rip my head off my shoulders with one hand tied behind his back," Kouryuu pointed out.

"You're not at all fond of him, then?"

Kouryuu recognised the sound of Koumyou leading him.

"That's my business, isn't it?"

"Do you still hear that voice calling to you?"

"You set me up."

"You sound surprised, Kouryuu. I'm your master; it's what I do. I send you places and you learn things."

"Oh, I found all sorts of enlightenment up there."

Koumyou glanced over at him then with the slightest of all infuriating smiles.

"You sent me up there and you _knew_ what was going to happen because you set it up years ago. You figured I'd be your leash. Well, guess again. I'm not playing."

"You're forgetting something," Koumyou said unconcernedly.

"What?" Kouryuu asked ungraciously.

"You were _my_ hole card." Koumyou smiled, waiting, as that sank in. "And now, you begin to understand."

Kouryuu remembered to glower. "If you call me grasshopper, I _will_ shoot you."

"We are given these attachments for a reason, don't you think? The more I look at the way events unfold, the less it looks like random chance."

"Fate, master?" Kouryuu raised an eyebrow, even though Koumyou couldn't see it. Whatever was riding under the air tonight, Koumyou could feel it, too.

"Not fate, necessarily. Just...something. But you disagree."

This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation, after all. The idea of fate had never sat well with Kouryuu any way he looked at it.

"I don't have time for fate. All I know is, I'm not going to let anyone jerk him around anymore. Either of us."

Koumyou was silent.

"What, no comment?"

"Well, you're getting _some_ where," Koumyou allowed judiciously.

Kouryuu scowled.

"Your face will stick like that," Koumyou told him without looking.

 

Goku was warm and waiting for him in his bed. Well, sprawled and drooling, but he moved over and wrapped himself around Kouryuu when he slipped under the covers.

"I like him," Goku said unexpectedly after a few minutes.

 _Of course you do_. "He left you up there, you know. All those years I heard you calling in my head were just scheming bullshit."

Goku thought about that.

"He did send you, though. I knew you were coming."

"As if that makes a difference," Kouryuu spat.

"To me."

It was Kouryuu's turn to be silent.

"I know you don't agree. That's okay. I think I've figured it out."

Kouryuu cranked his head over his shoulder to look at him.

"Figured what out?"

"You like being angry. But it's okay."

Goku flashed him a smile in the dark.

"Is it, now?" Kouryuu asked flatly.

Goku licked his jaw. " 'Cause you're sexy when you're angry."

"That explains your libido," Kouryuu said, trying not to sound effected.

"See, I dunno what that is, but it sounds sexy." Goku's stiffening prick nudged him suggestively.

"Weren't you asleep five minutes ago?"

" 'M awake now," Goku said around Kouryuu's earlobe.

"I can see that."

Kouryuu shivered as he felt the pressure of Goku's hard-on digging into his ass again. He was maybe going to have to think more about how attached he was to Goku in spite of his general disdain for the rest of sentient life. For now, he only needed to know he was going to hold onto the little bastard.

He reached around awkwardly and tilted Goku's head for a kiss. Goku made an appreciative noise that soon deepened to a growl he could feel rumbling in Goku's chest. One broad hand made its way over Kouryuu's stomach to his cock. Fingers traced lightly up its length, unimpeded by superfluous cloth. Goku swiped his thumb across the head at the same time as he tugged at Kouryuu's lower lip with his teeth.

Kouryuu choked back the sounds Goku seemed intent to pull out of him. The walls weren't very thick, after all, and this was not the sort of thing he wanted to share with the goddamned priggish monks. Not the slick, smooth slide of Goku's body against his, or the rich, lapping well of his mouth.

The darkness was deep around them, muffling their small sounds in its stillness. There was something private and thrilling about doing this here, in selfish silence. Goku might spend agonisingly wonderful hours drawing a moan out of him some day later, the way he coaxed a vibrating hum into Kouryuu's throat when he swallowed Goku's dick, but here silence was his victory, keeping every touch and sharp breath for himself.

There was a jar of gun grease over—somewhere—dammit—there! Kouryuu pressed it back into Goku's hand. He felt Goku's fingers twitch when he recognised it, simultaneous twitch of hips thrusting that thick, delicious cock more firmly against his backside.

No, not stupid after all. Kouryuu leaned back into it, heart like a trip hammer beneath his ribs. He bit his lip on a thousand urging pleas because Goku's hand was already there, a finger slipping past the ring of muscular resistance to prepare him.

The little cunt went right for his prostate, working it until he was panting and sweating and it barely registered there were _three_ fingers up his ass now. Shit, he'd been _paying attention_.

One of Goku's arms was threaded though Kouryuu's so he could hold on to Kouryuu's shoulder while the other hand worked. Goku licked sweat from his shoulders, tongue sweeping up the back of his neck to collect it from the prickling hairs there.

"Are you ready for me?" Goku whispered, muffling his voice in Kouryuu's hair.

Kouryuu bit his tongue on a moan. If Goku knew what that did to him... Of course Goku knew what it did to him; Kouryuu could all but _see_ the smirk plastered all over that wide, dancing face. Paying much more attention than Kouryuu had given him credit for.

Goku flexed his fingers. "Well?"

"Fuck me already," Kouryuu growled.

"Since you ask so nicely." Goku nibbled promisingly at his ear.

Kouryuu felt him inhale profoundly as he withdrew his fingers, cock slipping down into the groove of Kouryuu's ass. Was the hand that guided him in shaking ever so slightly? Kouryuu was not prepared to admit to trembling.

Considerations of pride deserted him with the first thrust. It was a hotter, fuller sensation than he'd expected, and he thought Goku must have penetrated all the way to his chest. That must be why his heart stuttered like a kid who couldn't remember any of his lessons. Goku pushed all the way in, the motion smooth and controlled until halfway through, when he felt Goku's control break and it became fluid and fierce.

Kouryuu hooked his leg around Goku's for leverage and pushed further onto Goku's cock. It was thick and long and stretched him until he thought he'd break. Their legs flexed and pulled them flush.

"More," Kouryuu croaked urgently, swallowing a shout.

A wet tongue licked a stripe across his back and Goku drove in harder, hitting the spot that made him clench his teeth in silent pleasure. His free arm searched vainly for something to grip. He wanted to push back, to feel every delicious inch of Goku's cock pounding into him; but Goku held him in place, fitting so closely the edge of a knife couldn't slip between them. Kouryuu thought wildly of the bloody queen's card in Castle Gogyo, her exposed heart cradled in her hands. The ace of hearts had been shot through.

Goku's fingers were leaving marks on his shoulder, gripping with the force of every thrust. His other hand painted teasing trails in Kouryuu's sweat, from the pale line of hair that grew below his stomach, up his neck to his jaw, brushing his lips. He had set a fast, rolling rhythm, drumming thought from Kouryuu's mind with ruthless determination.

The hand strayed down to Kouryuu's cock to move with devilish counterpoint until Kouryuu thought he'd be pulled in two. Goku whispered elaborate mantras around his name in a voice that was scarcely more than air.

"Kouryuu, mmng, let me...so good, Kouryuu. I want to feel. Feels so— _oh_. Feel you _come_ , Kouryuu. Come for me. Come, come, come."

It was too much. Kouryuu bucked against Goku's hold on him, lost, biting his lip bloody.

" _Kouryuu_ ," Goku breathed and clutched him tighter as his own control broke and he toppled over the edge after. He curled around Kouryuu, arms wrapped around him in a warm embrace for long minutes before releasing him.

Kouryuu shifted so they were lying face to face. There was blood in the droopy-eyed kiss he gave Goku, but that was okay because some still-feral part of Goku liked that.

"That was awesome!" Goku tried to exclaim around a yawn. Even in the dark, Kouryuu could feel him radiating _love_ like a miniature sun.

Replying with a sleepy grunt, Kouryuu burrowed into his warmth. Goku made a happy little sound and snuggled back.


End file.
